Tie-breaking Cheney vote saves deficit cuts [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Dec. 21, 2005, 11:21PM
Tie-breaking Cheney vote saves deficit cuts
Senate returns to the House $39.7 billion plan limiting growth of benefit programs


By DAVID ESPO
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - In the final clashes of a year of partisan conflict, Senate Republicans salvaged a $39.7 billion package of deficit cuts on Vice President Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote.

Even Cheney's presence and the 51-50 vote it meant in favor of deficit cuts left the White House and GOP leadership short of final victory on the measure.

Democrats forced a few minor changes in the moments before it passed, enough to require the House to vote again before the measure can go to President Bush for his signature.
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Democrats said that however it was described, it would fall too harshly on lower-income Americans.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the GOP legislation "ideologically driven," and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said it was prelude to $70 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy that Republicans plan to pass next year, a combination he said would increase red ink.
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http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3541437.html